Gamüis, Spouts, and Amusemejsts. 
151 
decoction starting fermentation vvitliin ilie next few liours ; before tiiis 
took place, however, the mixture was continually being tasted. The dregs 
left in the vessels that were then emptied, were usually mixed with 
cassava meal for bread, which generally spoilt our appetites : but necessity 
knows no law, and unless we w anted to starve, we had to eat it. 
oGG. In spite of there being five tribes represented here, the most 
orderly harmony reigned : neither quarrel nor strife interrupted the 
general rejoieings, and we six Europeans among 100 children of JS^ature, 
who had never before seen a white man, felt just as safe as we would 
have been in one of the cities of the homeland. 
367. As the sun neared the horizon, and the high temperature had. 
somewhat cooled, the younger men and boys gatliered together and 
amused themselves with their games and sports. Balls made from maize 
glumes would be thrown into the air within one of the circles made up 
of the players and, before touching the ground, had to be hit up again 
with the Hat of the hand by the j)erson in whose direction one of them 
would be falling, so that the ball would be kept continually on the move. 
If the ball was missed and fell onto the ground, the clumsiness was pun- 
ished with the general ridicule of the whole assembly. We were usually 
to be found in the ranks of the players, but were as regularly the objects 
for chaff by old and young. When the sun had disappeared, the different 
dances commenced and all was life and gaiety. The austere and earnest 
features so peculiar to old age in the American race relaxed as if by magic. 
The eyes of tlie older folk, smiling and revelling in the memories of the 
l»ast, turned to the wonderfully 'quick movements of the younger, while 
the fairer sex, A\ ho were not allowed to take part in the games, carped 
at the cluTiisy ones, and applauded those whose skill deserved it. In the 
monkey dance, the antics aud cajx'rs of a troup of apes were so cleverly 
mimicked, as to uiake one believe thati they were really here in front of 
him, and kei>t us in a continual roar of laughter. In the tiger dance, the 
biggest and stoniest of the young ludians headed the column of animals 
who, (hiring the course of tlie dance, in which each one imitated tlie 
actions of the creature he represented, had to be fetched out of the ranks 
either by strength or strategy by two otlier ]:)layers representing tigers 
and carried away by them to a tixed spot. The dance took long to perform 
until the very last one had been caught by the tiger who would then be 
cheered as concjueror by evei-ybody. The customary dance corresjionded 
exactly with that of the Waikas: a, monotonous song that beat the time, 
and like the latter had something melancholy and thrilling about it, be- 
cause here it resounded from several hundred voices. For the most part it 
was the wonders of Roraiuin, although this extraordinary mountain lay 
a hundred miles distant, that were glorified. "Roraima, the red crag 
wrapped in clotids, the ever-fruiffnli mother of the streams,'' or "I sing 
about the red rocks of Rorainui on which dark night reigns even by day," 
were refrains of the songs that we were to hear so often, especially among 
the Arekunas in the neighbourhood of the mountain. Quite as often we 
formed the subject of their poetic effusions, in which they celebrated our 
appearance, our conduct towards them but especially the route and 
objects of our expedition so far as they knew them. This art of impro- 
vising does not therefore appear limited only to their northern brethren, 
